Existing wearable sensors for mobile tracking of articulated body parts include body suits, gloves, head mounted sensors and shoulder mounted sensors. Often these are cumbersome and interfere with the wearer's everyday interaction with physical objects. For example, wearing gloves decreases the tactile sensation and dexterity of the fingers and wearing a body suit may be restrictive and/or uncomfortable.
Output from such wearable sensors is often limited in terms of the fidelity of tracking of articulated body parts it enables. For example, the number of degrees of freedom of an articulated body part which may be tracked is typically less than that required to enable fine gestures of the wearer to be detected accurately. Robustness and accuracy of such wearable sensors is also typically restricted due to the need for limitations in size, weight, form factor, the need to operate in real time and the need for low power consumption.
The embodiments described below are not limited to implementations which solve any or all of the disadvantages of known wearable sensors for tracking of articulated body parts.